Les McCann, legendary jazz pianist, innovator, and singer best known for his and saxophonist Eddie Harris' protest song "Compared to What," died last Friday, Jan. 5, at a Los Angeles hospital after getting afflicted with pneumonia a week prior. He was 88 years of age.
McCann's longtime manager and producer, Alan Abrahams, confirmed his passing last Sunday, as reported by the NBC Bay Area.
McCann and His Decades-Long Jazz Career
Renowned by many in the industry as a jazz icon, McCann's jazz and R&B fusion has seeped into his songs and has become a pillar on which early hip-hop has been based.
Genre forerunners have routinely sampled McCann's discography, including Notorious B.I.G. with his "10 Crack Commandments," Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre with their "The Next Episode," A Tribe Called Quest with their "After Hours," Warren G., Slick Rick, and many more.
This recognition is due to McCann's long-cultivated mastery of Jazz, which he has worked on even in his earliest years as a child.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1935, he spent his formative years in the presence of a musically endowed family. Growing up, he played the tuba and drums as part of his school's marching band and he mostly taught himself how to play the piano after an initial few lessons.
As a young adult in 1956, he was able to make an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" following his singing contest win during his time in the US Navy, which made his name apparent to many as the show was the most popular variety program on TV at the time.
He then decided to move to LA and form a trio within the city after getting discharged from the Navy, turning down an offer to join the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in the process.
In the 1960s, his first ascent to notable fame started when he signed to the Pacific Jazz label and made his first albums called "The Shout" and "Les McCann Plays the Truth," solidifying his notoriety as a boisterous and soulful instrumentalist.
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The Start to McCann's Bid as a Jazz Icon
Owing to his rising fame, his collaborations extended away from just his own trio as he also worked with his prolific contemporaries of the time including Stanley Turrentine, Joe Pass, Ben Webster, and The Jazz Crusaders among others.
Come 1968, he signed with Atlantic Records before releasing his and Harris' collaborative cover of the Gene McDaniel classic "Compared to What."
Although McCann released an earlier cover of the song for his 1966 album "Play the Hits," it was his joint project with Harris that resonated more with listeners and is hailed as one of the best versions of the jazz standard, among hundreds that were released.
After that massive success, he and Harris continued collaborating and even became a part of a large roster for a 14-hour-long concert in Accra in 1971, where they played alongside the era's biggest stars like the Staple Singers, Ike & Tina Turner, and Santana. The concert itself was part of a music documentary called "Soul to Soul."
In the following years, however, McCann gradually lost his momentum as a rising star after focusing more on his singing and electric keyboard playing. That said, he still performed consistently through the decades even after suffering from a stroke in the '90s.
Overall, the jazz innovator has put out over 60 albums throughout his long career, with one of his latter projects being a deluxe re-release of his "Never a Dull Moment! Coast to Coast Live 1966-67" collection.
Quincy Jones' comment regarding McCann can be found in that particular album's liner notes, which read: "Les McCann has been a musical force of nature since he burst on the scene in the early 60's. Whenever I heard him live or on record, he always did the unexpected."
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